Primegen Us, Inc.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, alcohol-related liver disease was rampant across the country with roughly 15 million people diagnosed, and the number of alcohol-related liver disease hospitalizations doubling over the last decade. Alcohol-related liver disease is caused from the metabolism of ethanol that creates toxic byproducts that in turn cause inflammation that leads to hepatitis. Women are more susceptible to alcohol-related liver disease in comparison to men because they have lower levels of the enzyme responsible for breaking down ethanol in the metabolism process, leading to higher levels of toxins in the blood causing further organ damage than in men. Covid-19 has only fueled the issue of alcohol-related liver disease with many people turning to the bottle in order to cope with the stresses that the pandemic has brought. According to Dr. Brian Lee a transplant hepatologist from Keck Hospital of USC, the admission of alcoholic liver disease patients is up 30% in 2020 compared to 2019. Additionally, specialists from the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, Harvard University and Mount Sinai Health System in New York reported numbers up 50% since March. Leading liver disease specialists and psychiatrists believe that the isolation, unemployment, hopelessness, lack of daily structure, and boredom all caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have caused the increase of alcohol use and has led to the influx of alcohol-related liver disease cases. A study showed that the rate of adults turning to alcohol was up 14% in spring 2020 compared to in 2019. Furthermore, another study showed that drinkers consumed 30% more alcohol than in the pre-pandemic months. The stress of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many patients to relapse and become hospitalized as a result. Alcohol-related liver disease is the leading cause for transplantation and more than 1 in 20 patients with alcohol-related liver failure die before leaving the hospital. However, due to COVID-19 the mortality rate for patients with alcohol-related liver disease will increase. This is because liver disease makes people more susceptible to COVID-19; as a result, patients with liver disease die of COVID-19 at rates three times higher than those without it. In summary, alcohol-related liver disease was the “pandemic” before COVID-19, growing greater in number of cases and killing many of the people with the disease waiting for better treatments or a transplant. The COVID-19 pandemic has only fueled the issue of alcohol-related liver disease and though the pandemic is mostly in the past, we will continue to face the repercussions of what COVID-19 has caused, in the future. Unfortunately, patients with alcohol-related liver disease have few options of treatment that are effective and affordable. A liver transplant costs $577,100 on average. As of early 2015 an estimated 14,000 patients were on the transplant waiting list. That number has most certainly grown since. PrimeGen has developed a solution based on its stemXcell platform that may someday save billions in healthcare costs and millions of lives by slowing the rapid progression of ACFL, long enough for a liver transplantation and/or restoring liver functions in the patient to prevent death.  We are on a mission to lead the stem cell revolution and treat debilitating inflammatory diseases like ACFL caused by excessive alcohol consumption. Who We Are What We Do Investors Media Room Contact

June 23, 2015 By Alex Keown , BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff SANTA ANA, Calif. – PrimeGen Biotech Corporation is opening a new 10,000 square-foot research facility in Santa Ana, Calif., and will “grow its operation substantially over the next several months,” the company told BioSpace exclusively on Tuesday. As part of the news, PrimeGen will no longer maintain its 28,000 square-foot facility in Irvine, Calif., a company spokesman said this morning. “The company is planning to grow its operation substantially over the next several months and this new facility complete with new labs will give them the foundation to do that. Currently there are about 10 people working out of the Santa Ana office with room to grow,” Michael Farino with New Era Public Relations told BioSpace this morning. The new move is designed to drive the company’s stem cell research, as well as research into treatments and potential marketing of degenerative and aging related diseases. Founded in 2002, the company said the new facility is a reaffirmation of its commitment to stem cell research. The new facility will include five laboratories dedicated to tissue processing, cell culture research and development, molecular biology, flow cytometry and histology. The new facility was designed to give PrimeGen ’s research team the “space and tools necessary to delve deeper into the characterization of stem cells and their respective therapeutic value,” the company said. Additionally, the space will allow the company to comply with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ’s Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations, readying for the translational phase of their stem cell therapeutic objectives. “Stem cell research has come a long way since we started PrimeGen 13 years ago, and so have the techniques and technology requirements associated with the science,” Tom Yuen , PrimeGen Biotech ’s chief executive officer said in a statement . “Our new facility was custom designed and built featuring advanced laboratories filled with the latest equipment; allowing our research team to continue pioneering new uses for stem cells as regenerative medicine.” PrimeGen was founded by a co-founder of AST Computers and Yuen, the former chief executive of Santa Ana-based SRS Labs , which manufactured software and other components that boost sound quality in audio devices. In 2012 SRS Labs was acquired by Calabasas-based DTS Inc. for $148 million, the Orange County Business Journal reported reported. When that transaction occurred, Yuen was still listed as chairman and chief executive of SRS Labs . This morning the company’s website was down. In 2006 PrimeGen spun off Czech-based PrimeCell Therapeutics to work exclusively on the therapeutic development of PrimeCell , the first adult, non-embryonic stem cell capable of transforming into any cell type found in the body. PrimeCell Therapeutics will focus solely on adult stem cell reprogramming, and preparing PrimeCell for therapeutic development and application. “ PrimeGen will continue its pursuit of the best approaches across the range of regenerative medicine, while PrimeCell Therapeutics will focus entirely on what we believe to be the most promising methodology yet -- a germ line stem cell reprogrammed to be pluripotent,” Yuen said in a statement at the time of PrimeCell ’s formation. As Rumors Swirl About GlaxoSmithKline Bid, Who Could Suitors Be? Rumors are swirling that Swiss-based Roche and U.S.-based Johnson & Johnson are eying the U.K. company for approximately $143 billion. But Roche and J&J aren’t the only companies though who have been thought could go after the elephant that is Glaxo. Last month there was buzz that Pfizer Inc. was considering acquiring Glaxo , a year after it failed to acquire AstraZeneca PLC . Just this month over a third of respondents in a poll conducted by BioSpace believe that AstraZeneca PLC could be in the running to acquire struggling GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) . So BioSpace wants to ask our readers again what they predict for this new dealmaking bonanza. Will Glaxo go—and if so, to whom? var _polldaddy = [] || _polldaddy; _polldaddy.push( { type: "iframe", auto: "1", domain: "biospace.polldaddy.com/s/", id: "as-rumors-swirl-about-glaxo-bid-who-could-suitors-be", placeholder: "pd_1434950261" } ); (function(d,c,j){if(!document.getElementById(j)){var pd=d.createElement(c),s;pd.id=j;pd.src=(' '==document.location.protocol)?' ':' ';s=document.getElementsByTagName(c)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(pd,s);}}(document,'script','pd-embed'));